Light Em Up (oc x oc)

XII - Nova

I hand her an envelope of cash and quickly write down her instructions on a sheet torn from the back of my book. I leave Madison behind and start walking toward the airport, falling into the passing of people effortlessly. I do not doubt I'll be fine getting through passport checks. The Stolls knew exactly what they were doing with these fake IDs.

Eight hours later, I disembark in New York. I use the last of my cash to get a bus to Montauk, and walk the rest of the way to the camp border. Nico waits anxiously at the tree.

"Where is Madison?"

"Hopefully on her way to North Carolina."

"Nova, what did you do?"

"I gave her the location she needed to be at. Every single thing that happened on that quest happened because she'd only been at camp a week. It was ridiculous for anyone to let us leave."

"You left her?" Nico starts pacing, the grass darkening under his feet. "How could you be so stupid?"

"You didn't hear what she said," I sneer. "Nico, you are in no position to tell me what I can and can't do on quests. I dread to think what you were doing. You went to hell and back everyone other weekend. Madison will be fine."

"She knows nothing of how to survive out there!"

"For a time, neither did you." I cross my arms over my chest. "I fulfilled my end of the bargain."

Nico clenches his jaw. "You're completely insane. You're telling me you didn't feel even a little bit like that was a bad idea?"

"I stand by my decision. She has to learn. She knows more about the world than I do."

"Maybe the mortal world, sure, but does she know how to have clearer sight? To identify monsters? To identify whoever's left of Luke Castellan's hate group?"

"She has to learn."

"You don't throw people over a waterfall to teach them to swim."

"Maybe you should have gone, huh, if you don't like my decisions."

"I can't argue with you. You're insufferable, you know that? No wonder everyone hates you. Anything that doesn't fit exactly what you think it should be gets shot down and thrown aside. You manipulate people through your entire woe is me act. I know for a fact your childhood memories didn't even exist and you like to pretend you're so hard done by."

"Oh, are we taking off the kiddie gloves? Let me think. You nearly killed the majority of my friends on various quests because you couldn't get your priorities on order, not to mention trashing an entire empire because you managed to summon a vengeful giant. Is that enough, or shall I add when Percy got put in Underworld jail, or when you kept rushing headlong into things and could have gotten Will killed, or when you had to get yourself literally banned from going back to Tartarus? Nico, you are in no place to lecture me. So what if you got a redemption arc? I've never done any of the bad things you have."

"You haven't done any of the good, either. You're bone-shatteringly average." I spin on my heel and start walking down the hill. "Rot in hell, Nova Harleigh."

I reach my cabin, and carefully check my face in the reflective surface of the wall before pushing the door open.

"Where's Madison?" Will asks.

"North Carolina, hopefully. I've just had this fight with Nico. I don't need it with you too." I start packing up everything else I own. "I'm going again. I wanted to say goodbye and pick up the rest of my books. Thanks for everything, guys."

"You're leaving us?" asks Gracie.

"My journey takes me elsewhere now."

Jerry pats her arm gently. "We all have to leave eventually. Ave, Nova."

I pull my now-overflowing backpack over my shoulders and, like Orpheus leaving the Underworld, I have to look back, just once. Will stands in the doorway with Kayla and Austin, tears in his eyes.

I tear my gaze away and keep walking, picking my way through the minefield of memories.

Madison

I land in O'Hare, Chicago, looking around all the time. I miss Nova. I should have kept my mouth shut. I knew she liked girls, but I guess I'm just not her type at all. I know she hates emotional vulnerability, but I thought she deserved to know. Hell knows I should have just stayed quiet.

I stay in a cheap hotel room for the night. The flights are irregular. It forces me into another worrisome dream.

"Welcome back."

The voice echoes through the rain, the cadences harmonising with the rain.

"You've taken longer than I expected. Don't worry, there's a spell over the clearing. You'll know when you get here."

"Am I going the right way?"

"The sun shall guide you. You can't get here without it."

The dream dissolves to a ragged Nova hitchhiking. A sign in the distance reads Welcome to Delaware.

My heart aches.

I wake up in a cold sweat.

I manage to get my way to my connection to Wilmington. I don't know why this address is so important. I think it has to do with Nova's past, sure, but I don't know why she's so afraid of it.

I land in Wilmington a few hours later. I don't know what the date is, or what the time is, or even where I am, but I find a map and a bus and am soon enough standing outside 3222 West Bucket Road as the rain pours down.

I knock hesitantly on the door. An older woman opens it, maybe mid fifties. She's as far from Nova as I could expect. Her face is harsh and pinched, framed with graying dark hair. Her eyes are a brown so dark they're almost black. There's no kindness or emptiness in her eyes, only a sharp malice. If I didn't know better, I'd say Nova was Cinderella and this woman was the wicked stepmother.

"Excuse me," I stutter, shivering in the porch. "I'm looking for a Ms Harleigh?"

"A friend of Novella's?"

"Kind of. Acquaintances. She told me to come here."

"I'd leave, if I were you, before I call the police to escort you from my property," she snaps.

"What?"

This was not in the plan. This was not in the plan. Then I realise Nova never told me to come to this house, just the woodland nearby.

"Novella lost her welcome in this town a long time ago. She get kicked out of New York yet?"

"No, she's been an angel-"

"That girl is a curse. You look like a good, God-fearing woman, darlin', so I'll put it plainly. Novella brought down the fiery wrath of hell on this place. Combined with her...lifestyle choice..."

"Do you mean-"

"If you ever see the ungrateful wretch, call an exorcist. I should have done it long ago."

I think I understand why Nova is the way she is. If she was raised in such a heavily-Catholic household, it explains her lack of belief in anything, even what we know to be true. Her mother explains why she never got comfortable in New York, not really. And although she might have accepted herself in passing, there's so many deep-rooted issues that she's never going to be okay, not fully whole. Her problems didn't start when the Titans attacked New York. They started long before that.

The door slams, echoing down the street. I wring my hair out, and start walking away from the depressing building housing the nightmares of an innocent child. I collar a young woman - she seemed perfectly fine, even calling me sugar, clearly proving not all Southerners are evil bastards - on the street and she points me in the direction of the woodland. Hopefully I finally have some answers.

I trek through the knee-high brambles onto a barely-there path. Rain drips irregularly from the trees. I force myself to keep going. With every step, my chest hurts more and more, until I fall to my knees from the pressure.

My eyes close.

Love has harsh punishments, Madison Harper. Dreams may be heart's wishes, but love is a two-way street. You're alone.

"She isn't. Not any more."